Publisher: Havas Interactive
Developer: Blizzard
Expected Release Date: 2001
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It has been seven years since Blizzard's classic Warcraft: Orcs and Humans, and in the interim the company has produced such smash hits as Diablo, Starcraft, and Diablo II. Now Blizzard is returning to the series that made it famous, with Warcraft III scheduled to hit the shelves in late 2001. The game is a venture into "role-playing strategy" much like Warlords Battlecry. The standard two races of the Warcraft series have been increased to four: In addition to humans and orcs, the game will include undead and night elves.
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In a recent Q&A with Computer Games Magazine, Warcraft III producer Rob Pardo made the interesting comment that if you give players powerful heroes, players can sometimes be reluctant to use them. "In Starcraft we had a hero [like in Warcraft III] that we wanted everyone to play with, but because the risk was so high of him dying, players would stick him back in the town and never use him." In Warcraft III, players will be encouraged to fight with their heroes by having the heroes be able to be reincarnated. This can either be an innate ability or it can be done in a town at a special building for a price determined by the level of the dead hero. It's an interesting solution to the problem.
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Westwood Studios
Expected Release Date: 2001
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Nine years after Dune II virtually invented a genre of PC gaming, Westwood is revisiting Frank Herbert's classic science fiction series with Emperor: Battle for Dune. While the company did release Dune 2000 in the fall of 1998, Producer Chris Longpre said that "Emperor is the true sequel to Dune II." Designers at Westwood started discussing ideas for Emperor shortly after Dune 2000 shipped. "We spent about five months in design meetings talking about different approaches and philosophies. We really wanted to go fully 3D, with a strong focus on side diversity and tactics. Over the past two years, we took inspiration from Red Alert 2, [the upcoming games] Renegade, and Earth and Beyond. We found many ways to improve our interface design, graphical representations, and gameplay elements," Longpre said.
Emperor will cover familiar territory, with the Houses Atreides, Harkonnen, and Ordos fighting over the imperial throne left vacant by the assassination of Padishah Emperor Frederick IV, Ruler of the Known Universe. With the move to a 3D graphics engine, the game will be a significant step for Westwood. That Dune would once again be the subject for such an important game for Westwood makes perfect sense, said Longpre, because "Dune has always been near and dear to our hearts, ever since the days of Dune II." The ultimate goal, he said, is to design "a gorgeous, fun RTS that is easy to pick up and start playing, but offers plenty of advanced features for the most die-hard fans."
